#so i was kind of like yeaaah you're all going to think i just ship her with anyone

[masschase]

i can’t remember if you talked about it before, but for the ask meme i’m curious about troy and casey. and if you have already, or feel like talking about more than one ship, what about casey and viola?

Ooh, OK! I thought I wasn't going to get any this time around so this is a pleasant surprise! 😊

Have your followers send in suggestions for ships for your OC, and you describe how good/bad/amazing/disastrous/hilarious it would end up.

Casey and Troy

So Troy and Casey is a definite no! At one point early on in forming my hcs I was going to have them be cousins, and while I have yet to give a definitive answer on whether they are or not, I've been shifting back in the direction that are, but that unlike my original hc, neither of them remotely know that in my main-universe. In fact, you know what? They are and I'm going to do a post on that later because I have more to say on it. 😁

However, speaking from a potential situation where they're not related... it's still not something I can see.

So just off the bat I don't ship Casey with anyone during SR1 because she's only 15 at the start(slight exception being in universes where she has Zoo as her co-boss and/or friend as they are the same age, so I shall allow them their little moments). The next youngest Saint is Dex who I hc as 21 and gay so... yeah, no. But I do have the thing of Casey having one-sided crushes on Johnny, Lin and Dex.

Why not Troy? He just wasn't someone she saw as "cool" like she saw the others, in fact he was quite protective and responsible with regards to her and this is why I see their connection as more familial and duty-based (because I believe regardless of Troy leaning towards the Saints overall he's had a keen sense of protecting civilians drummed into him since childhood) even if they aren't related by blood. When she starts to succeed in life, he feels pretty proud of her.

Additionally, while I see that Troy is a complicated and probably conflicted character, Casey takes a long time to get out of the mindset that he betrayed her. It's one of those things where she knows it's not entirely black and white but she can't quite shake the grudge she felt when she woke up from the coma and found out.

There is the brief and admittedly kind of silly thing about Troy having a wife who resembles Casey(referencing ONE mission and something I thought of bc of posts so far back I will NOT be able to find them but you know). I don't believe that's because Troy has some secret attraction to Casey, I think it's something he just doesn't really see because he doesn't want to. He sees them too differently.

So there just isn't a place and time for them, you know? But even if things were to align, I just don't think they're attracted to each other, sexually or romantically, so I can't really envision a ship dynamic for them.

Casey and Viola

This one is interesting. I think Viola is incredibly grateful Casey allowed her to join the Saints, but her overall opinion of her is Boss first, friend second, and Casey reacts accordingly, so they're not super close friends. I can see some physical attraction between the two, more Casey towards Viola than vice versa(partly bc of Viola's thing for Shaundi, but also just in general). I don't think they ever hooked up but like they easily could have given the right situation.

Romantically, on the other hand, I can't see it at all. Viola and Casey are both, to me, "cool" characters emotionally. While they aren't unpleasant people I think both of them have a certain standoffishness, though Viola's would appear as more "professional/detached" and Casey's as "chill/unphased".

I think they both have a great deal of capacity for love. But I think they both need an emotionally warm character to unlock that. I think Shaundi for example is emotionally warm even if some of the barriers she puts up from SR3 onwards make it hard to see, which is why time and place dependant, she works as a ship for them both. For the record, they could potentially work as a triad. Maybe. But I also feel like there's also something about the Shaunvi vibe that Casey would just throw off completely. Maybe because she's almost the mediator between them so she might balance out what's passionate and interesting about them.

This is going a little off topic but I've actually wanted to talk about this aspect of Casey for a while because when you look at their first impressions you wouldn't get that she is the cold one and Matt is the warm one. Matt doesn't immediately come across as "warm" at all but I would chalk that up to fear and anxiety. In SR4 we get to see him acting a lot more openly emotional as well as passionate about things he cares about, because he's found a group of people he actually feels comfortable enough around to be himself. Leaning more towards headcanons (although maybe not so much when you see his rejected advances towards Asha in-game) I have him as quite physically affectionate/touchy feely. It's a combination of sensory seeking and not always being able to put his affection for people into words.

I don't allude to it here as much but in my writing I make frequent mention of it. Casey talks about how she's always cold and Matt is really warm as a justification for being physically close with him. I constantly have Casey tell Matt to relax/breathe when he's panicking and talk about how he finds her cool touch calming. That sort of thing. If you want to go one further there's the fact that Casey smells warm (cinnamon) but feels cold when you get closer, and Matt smells cold (lemon) but when you get closer he's physically warm.

But getting back to my actual point- Matt and Casey take a long time to get together because he's like a very persistant hairdryer melting a block of ice. But it works eventually. With Viola, Shaundi is more like a decent heat source which melts the ice very easily once her own barrier (in my hc, finding out in 2016 that Johnny isn't actually dead) is lifted. Viola and Casey on the other hand are just... two blocks of ice. It's a nice thought but it's just not going anywhere.